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Noise Pollution from Car Audio Systems
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Richard Jernigan
Posts: 3430
Joined: Jan. 20 2004
From: Austin, Texas USA
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 RE: Noise Pollution from Car Audio S... (in reply to estebanana)
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On a related topic, years ago in San Francisco my mentor and good friend Gene S. and I came upon a group on the sidewalk staring disgustedly at a car whose alarm system had gone off for no apparent reason, deafening everyone for blocks around.
Gene was quite progressive in his politics, well read, a mathematical genius and one of the founders of a company that eventually reached a billion dollars a year in sales. He was a member of the National Rifle Association. But he had joined well before the organization assumed its right-wing "gun rights above all" stance, which it did before our trip to San Francisco. In earlier days its membership were largely hunters and marksmen who shared a general interest in rifles. Gene had modified a WW II Springfield into a beautiful sporting rifle during his impoverished student days, following articles in the National Rifleman magazine.
Gene wore a NRA bolo tie at times, mainly to engage strangers in discussions. (A bolo tie is a string or cord, with a clasp at the neck. The clasp sometimes bears a club logo.)
Gene also had a wonderful dry sense of humor. Walking up to the severely annoyed group looking daggers at the alarmed car, he fingered his tie, and said in an exaggerated Texas drawl, "Another reason citizens need assault rifles."
A significant fraction of the group's anger was diverted to him, as he strolled on with a slight smile.
RNJ
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Date Aug. 7 2012 20:58:39
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estebanana
Posts: 9351
Joined: Oct. 16 2009
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RE: Noise Pollution from Car Audio S... (in reply to estebanana)
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Yikes. I actually like the mechanized up a down movement of the cars and all the other trick stuff, I grew up on lowrider land, but the gangs no thanks. Not all lowriders are jerks, in fact most are not. I also grew up in areas where there were gang wars.
I went to Colton High School near Riverside, East of LA, Colton, Fontana and San Bernardino were about as rough as it can get. The gang in San Bernardino was called Los Counts, they were pretty nasty. Now it is much much worse.
The song about cruising E St. by Van Halen was about E st. in San Bernardino, it was quite a spectacle. There was violence then, but it was really more about the cars and the passeo back then. Since I was a whitey boy surfer my Friday nights were spent driving to San Clemente to spend the night in my VW and get up at dawn to surf Trestles. I did see the E St. Cruise few times, wow what a crazy bumper to bumper car show.
The thing about a lowrider, is it can be really beautiful. A Chevy Impala is about the most beautiful car to lower, and is it is down with restraint and good color, nice line work of man it can really be gorgeous. Of course if you're from New England you may not get it, it might just look like another beaner car to you.
Sometimes the cheapskate lowrider would lower a Chevy Monte Carlo, lame. The Monte Carlo is a trash car, ugly sides and profile. The front is hideous. Better to grab a Pontiac Bonneville or even a funky old Toyota sedan than the cliche' Monte. uugh.
Those days were also a time when lowrider music had more appeal to non lowriders. Bands like War, P-Funk, Los Lobos later on, even Zep. Popular music was still well crafted at that time and stereo systems were loud, but the aesthetic was not to rattle the chassis a panels, but to get clear honest sound.
There's nothing wrong with a deep blue Impala with white walls and gorgeous paint playing some band like Tito Puente kinda loud through a good system. But too many guys use the car like an aggressive piece of armor today, they have lost the arte and the finesse of customizing.
The other sadness is the penchant for dorks to drive high riders with tall gaudy wheels and thin, thin tires. They think putting ugly wheels on a car makes it badass, not. When I was in high school those guys would have been considered simpleton posers. You either had surf racks on your vehicle and you surfed, or you were a real cholo with Pendelton and bandana.
Hilarious that in my senior year in high school I set a gang fashion trend. Since I was a skinny little skater kid I had work Vans tennis shoes. The classic ones that they made had colored canvas panels and you could buy several pair a mis match the colors. I transferred into Colton High and wore my long sleeve surfer tee shirts and cordouroy shorts with my mis matched Vans. At some point during my junior year one of the school cholos started wearing the same shoes I was wearing. It seemed to have caught on and when I came back in fall of senior year many cholos had mis macthed vans.
Crossing the quad one day I passed by a guy who had on the mismatched shoes, he gave me a dirty look because I was wearing my vans. And I just looked back and shrugged my shoulders. They KNEW I was there first, they stopped the ongoing verbal harassment they gave whites and just ignored me the rest of the year.
Wearing someone's colors is a dangerous thing, but they KNEW they got that stuff from the white kids. Hilarious.
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_____________________________
https://www.stephenfaulkguitars.com
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Date Aug. 9 2012 5:44:47
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Richard Jernigan
Posts: 3430
Joined: Jan. 20 2004
From: Austin, Texas USA
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RE: Noise Pollution from Car Audio S... (in reply to Escribano)
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While I lived at Kwajalein in the Central Pacific I swam at least a kilometer per day. I swim less distance now in my own pool, but the daily laps are a sensual pleasure.
I began scuba diving when I was 18 or 19. There were no teaching agencies then, so I have no record. We soon progressed to diving in caves in Central Texas and Northeastern Mexico, in the Sierra Madre Oriental. The Mexican caves can be pretty deep. It's one of the two things that frighten me to recollect. Specialized cave diving equipment and safe practices were non-existent in those days. It would have been so easy to die. But we were young and immortal.
When I moved to Kwajalein I took the standard courses, qualifying as a PADI Divemaster at age 55. I racked up a little over 1500 dives in various places in the Pacific, about 2/3 of them at Kwajalein. For 12 years I regularly ran club dive trips, responsible for 50 or so divers. I only had to do two rescues during that period. Nothing serious, just people who got into scary situations and panicked.
I was fortunate in having my own boat, so we could get to areas where no one dived regularly. The environment at Kwajalein was relatively intact, but if you got away from the frequented areas, it was a totally different experience. I'm not an especially religious person, but more than once, diving on a new site, I said to myself, "This is how God made it." It's another world, indescribably beautiful.
I'm busy scanning photos my brother and I inherited from our mother. When I'm done with that I will start on the underwater slides. Underwater photography is significantly different from on land. I realized that if I was going to learn I would need prompt feedback, so I processed my own film. After a year or so of two to four dives every weekend, I got to be fairly competent technically. I was fortunate to have skilled and enthusiastic photographers for dive buddies. We motivated one another, and were asked to put on occasional shows for the folks.
RNJ
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Date Aug. 9 2012 8:33:19
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Richard Jernigan
Posts: 3430
Joined: Jan. 20 2004
From: Austin, Texas USA
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RE: Noise Pollution from Car Audio S... (in reply to estebanana)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: estebanana
I went to Colton High School near Riverside, East of LA, Colton, Fontana and San Bernardino were about as rough as it can get. The gang in San Bernardino was called Los Counts, they were pretty nasty. Now it is much much worse.
I used to spend a fair amount of time in San Bernardino when the Air Force Ballistic Missile Office was at Norton Air Force Base in the 1970s-1980s.
I packed hurriedly for the trip one time and arrived in San Bernardino without anything to read. I checked into the motel, hopped in the rental car, and went in search of a paperback, a copy of the New Yorker, or something. I stopped at several places but came up empty. After more than an hour of searching I bought a Spanish language edition of Mad magazine, a bottle of cheap wine and some peanuts, and beat it back to the motel.
RNJ
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Date Aug. 10 2012 5:15:53
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Richard Jernigan
Posts: 3430
Joined: Jan. 20 2004
From: Austin, Texas USA
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RE: Noise Pollution from Car Audio S... (in reply to estebanana)
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I grew up in the Air Force. For the last couple of years before he retired my father was the Commanding General of Continental Division of the Military Air Transport Service. By the time I started going to Norton the headquarters of that outfit, one of the larger ones in the Air Force, had moved to Norton.
Perhaps the first time I went on the base I arrived in San Bernardino after dark with a classified SECRET presentation in my brief case. My contact told me it could be stored overnight in the safe at the operations center for MATS. At the gate I showed my identification, stated my business and was allowed to proceed onto the base. The directions given by the Air Policeman on the gate were unintelligible. I had no idea where the Ops Center was, but figured if I wandered around for a while I would stumble across it. Didn't work.
I found the flight line with many big C-141s and gigantic C-5s parked on the tarmac, several big hangars and a "Do Not Enter" sign. The guy with me said, "Why don't we drive out there, maybe the Ops Center is out there somewhere."
I replied, "Not a chance. You may think security is lax on this base, but one thing the Air Force is very serious about is their airplanes."
Driving around a little more we saw an Air Police vehicle. My companion said, "Why don't we ask him?"
I said, "He will know where it is, but he won't be able to tell us how to get there."
"???"
"Most jobs in the Air Force require some technical training and ability. Two that don't are working in the Commissary and the Air Police. The Air Force is pretty good at assigning people to jobs they can do."
My friend clearly didn't believe me, so I flagged down the Air Policeman. After a few confusing false starts, it was clear that he couldn't give us reliable directions. But a thought occurred. "Can you drive to Air Police Headquarters and let us follow you?"
"Yes sir. Not a problem."
The Desk Sergeant not only could give us directions, but there was also a big map on the wall behind him. We went back to the flight line and followed a very convoluted path to the Ops shack. I said to my friend, "I'd like you to come with me."
"Why?"
"I'd rather you were not sitting out here in the car by yourself if someone starts asking questions." Reluctantly he complied.
We walked into the building. A sign at the foot of a broad flight of stairs directed us to the Ops shack, and added, "This is an Operational Command of the United States Air Force. The Use of Deadly Force is Authorized."
We made it up the steps to a window into the Ops shack. Two officers and a senior NCO were monitoring and directing the operations of the U.S military's vital lifeline. I cleared my throat and said, "Good evening." All three men picked up their automatic assault rifles. A major approached the window and asked what he could do for me. I showed him my identification, handed over the package to be stored overnight, got a receipt, thanked him and left.
My friend was quiet for a while after we got back in the car. Then he said, "Those guys really would have shot us if we made a false move."
"Only if we didn't obey orders."
RNJ
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Date Aug. 10 2012 6:28:24
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BarkellWH
Posts: 3458
Joined: Jul. 12 2009
From: Washington, DC
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RE: Noise Pollution from Car Audio S... (in reply to Richard Jernigan)
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I spent a few years in the Air Force before deciding to get a Master's Degree, and I have to say that it was the turning point in my life. I was in a command that has gone through several iterations and is now known as the Air Force Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconaissance Agency. Our mission was almost entirely overseas, and I was assigned to Germany and Pakistan. In Pakistan, we worked out of a base near Peshawar. It was the base from which Francis Gary Powers took off on his ill-fated U-2 flight across the Soviet Union. He was supposed to fly the usual Peshawar to Tromsko, Norway path, but this time a Soviet plane got enough speed and altitude to fire a missile that reached him and brought him down.
At any rate, my stint in the Air Force sparked in me a love for working overseas and a desire to work in the field of foreign affairs and national security. I have done that my entire life since, first as a career Foreign Service Officer, and since retirement, as a consultant to both the State Department and a Defense Department contracter. In fact, my continuing State Department connection is the reason I am currently Charge' d'Affaires at the American Embassy in Kolonia, Micronesia.
Although I did not want to make it a career, I very much enjoyed my time serving in the Air Force and found the work and my assignments interesting. And I will always be grateful for the direction in which it pointed me and the career that resulted from it.
Cheers,
Bill
_____________________________
And the end of the fight is a tombstone white,
With the name of the late deceased,
And the epitaph drear, "A fool lies here,
Who tried to hustle the East."
--Rudyard Kipling
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Date Aug. 10 2012 7:28:47
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Richard Jernigan
Posts: 3430
Joined: Jan. 20 2004
From: Austin, Texas USA
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RE: Noise Pollution from Car Audio S... (in reply to BarkellWH)
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The Air Force was a great career for my father. He was one of the generation that won WW II.
My brother did his medical internship in the Air Force at the big general hospital at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio. He served as a flight surgeon in the Strategic Air Command. This led directly to his being selected as head of the Flight Medicine branch of the NASA Manned Space Flight Center throughout the Apollo moon landing program. The Space Medicine Branch of the Aerospace Medical Association gave him the Hubertus Strughold Award for greatest contributions to space medicine.
My brother's son did his internship as a PhD clinical psychologist in the Air Force and served with a fighter outfit in the first Gulf War. A recurring problem was weapons officers, the back seat guys, developing such severe motion sickness they had to be grounded. My nephew developed a process for curing them.
I owe the Air Force an exciting childhood living in many interesting places, and meeting a lot of wonderful people, kids and adults. I thoroughly enjoyed it. During my career as an engineer and consultant in the defense industry some of the most rewarding and challenging projects were working for the Air Force.
The Air Force has been very good to me and my family. I was just personally unsuited for a military career, and recognized it at an early age. When offering what is almost always excellent advice, usually solicited by me, Larisa laughs and prefaces it by, "Now, I'm not telling you what to do! But you might consider..."
While splitting up with my ex-wife, fairly amicably, 24 years ago, I said to her, "If you fall in love again, try to find someone better at taking orders."
She replied, "I fell in love with you twenty-odd years ago because you were smart, handsome, charming, and very adventurous. At age 50 you're still a wild son of a bitch."
RNJ
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Date Aug. 10 2012 21:53:11
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estebanana
Posts: 9351
Joined: Oct. 16 2009
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RE: Noise Pollution from Car Audio S... (in reply to estebanana)
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When I was 19 and surfing like a fiend, my grandmother found a package of party balloons in my closet. This convinced her I was taking heroin, you know, because heroin comes in balloons, or so I am told, right. I have ever taken heroin.
So since my best friend had just joined the Air Force to get away from his alcoholic abusive father and my grandmother wished I was a good boy like Kevin, plus I was in her deranged mind on heroin, I was a bad, bad grandson. So because I did not want to become a born again preacher and I was a deadbeat ex water polo player and current restaurant worker ( on heroin right) /full time happy healthy surfer, my grandmother abused my poor mother into thinking she had raised a monster.
To get her mother off her back my mother agreed to accompany me to the local Air Force recruiter to get me signed up and on my way. We walked in and the recruiter gave me a bunch of insulting bullshiet. He said if I go in now during peace time, if war started, which was very unlikely as congress wants it's Peace Dividend, I would not see "action"- I would have a safe secured position in the back lines. He pushed the pen and contract across the table to me and I pushed it right back and said "You're a damn liar that's what you are." My mother was embarrassed and this jerk and I sat there locked in a gaze he did not get very often. He said "You're making a big mistake." I said " No I feel sorry you, you have this crappy job and you lie. "
So I was a family failure even though it was revealed that my grandmother did not know a heroin addict from a potato.
Ten years later, after I had graduated and had taken anthropology classes both my grandfathers who had been in WWII took me aside , unknown to one another, said I was correct to have told the recruiter off and that I had been me. Good for me. My half sisters grandfather who was a great, great fighter pilot in both WWII and Korea did the same thing. He told me I did exactly the right thing and that my instincts were good. Those guys were all fun as as hell, I miss all three of them.
( maybe another recruiter could have talked me into it if he had been intelligent about it. He lost the sale for Uncle Sam. ha ha ha)
_____________________________
https://www.stephenfaulkguitars.com
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Date Aug. 11 2012 0:48:40
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BarkellWH
Posts: 3458
Joined: Jul. 12 2009
From: Washington, DC
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RE: Noise Pollution from Car Audio S... (in reply to estebanana)
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quote:
( maybe another recruiter could have talked me into it if he had been intelligent about it. He lost the sale for Uncle Sam. ha ha ha)
He lost the sale for sure, Stephen, and it was Uncle Sam's loss! But, then, you obviously found a comfortable and interesting role in life (working in Big Sur, living in Micronesia and other parts of the world, becoming a luthier).
Cheers,
Bill
_____________________________
And the end of the fight is a tombstone white,
With the name of the late deceased,
And the epitaph drear, "A fool lies here,
Who tried to hustle the East."
--Rudyard Kipling
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Date Aug. 11 2012 1:43:30
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